Edward Cooke (Royal Navy officer)
Edward Cooke | |
|---|---|
Raid on Manila • Action of 28 February 1799 |
Captain Edward Cooke, (14 April 1772 – 25 May 1799) was a
Calcutta
on 25 May and was interred with full military honours.
Life
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Cooke was born in April 1772 to Colonel George and Penelope Cooke of
Mediterranean service under Lord Hood during the French Revolutionary Wars. In August 1793, Hood was approached by representatives of the French Royalist faction offering to surrender the powerful naval port city of Toulon in exchange for protection. Cooke was already familiar with the port and was selected as the British delegation to the authorities, entering the port surreptitiously as the approaches were patrolled by Republican supporters from the fleet at anchor. Cooke came under fire during his entry to the port and was under threat of execution, but successfully negotiated the complete surrender of the city and fleet to Lord Hood.[1]
Cooke then served as an aide to
John Bacon commemorating his victory and death was raised in Westminster Abbey in 1806.[2]
Notes
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, J. K. Laughton and Nicholas Tracy, (subscription required), Retrieved 25 May 2015
- ^ Edward Cooke, Westminster Abbey, Retrieved 25 May 2015